Abaji community should enjoy better infrastructure, says NUJ chief

The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abuja chapter, has appealed to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and federal Government to alleviate the suffering of indigenes of Agyana Pandagi community in Abaji area council of the Abuja, by assisting the council in constructing a bridge across the Gurara River in the community, which has been valued at N1.5bn.

The NUJ chairman, Comrade Chuks Ehirim who was moved by the sight of children transported by canoe across the river from Agyana Pandagi road junction which stopped at the river bank, to the other side of the river to school, stated that the bridge, when constructed will go a long way to ease the stress of the indigent school children and also promote economic values.

According to Ehirim who led journalists from NUJ to Abaji on a media assessment tour of projects executed by the area councils, said that the FCTA and federal government should take seriously the passionate appeals, to construct the bridge across the River, also because of its political and economics significance to the FCT.

“If there is a bridge here, it would give impetus for economic activities, as well as enhance the economic well being of the local farmers here. If the government can take this project seriously, it will equally link this place up to Niger State. As well as remove some stress from the Gwagwalada/Abaji/Lokoja road, because people would prefer to travel through here to other parts of the country.

“There is no way you could expect the area council to foot this bill of N1.4bn for the construction of this bridge. So, we are appealing to the federal government to compliment what the area council has done in constructing the 15km road, by urgently take over the construction of this bridge, because it will help a lot of people living in the rural area here and it would also provide safety for children schooling across, who cross the river with canoes to school,” he said.

Earlier the council’s head of Works Department, Alhaji Abdulaziz Uthman said that they have made series of compassionate appeals to the FCT administration to help them with the construction of the bridge, because the council cannot fund the construction, saying that they have always been given promises that would lead to the realization of the bridge, but nothing has been done.

“We are still appealing for their assistance. The road should have continued to the other side, but it had to end here because of the river, since there is no bridge. We have valued the bridge based on our estimate and in house level and we found that the bridge would cost nothing less than N1.5bn.

“We were looking at a situation where we would have had a recreational centre here, because there was a proposal between the council to have a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, for them to have a recreational facility here and an artificial beach would have been created here and we would have been raising a lot of revenue for the council,” he said.